Meghan Daum s unforgettable debut novel brings her sharp wit and courageous social commentary to the story of Lucinda Trout a New York television reporter in search of greener pastures Moving to the slower paced friendly and vastly more affordable Midwestern town of Prairie City Lucinda zealously creates a series of televised reports for her New York audience about her newfound quality of life But when Lucinda falls for eccentric local Mason Clay her naivete about the real world leads her down an unexpected path where she encounters among other things a drafty old farmhouse filled with children an ever growing menagerie of farm animals and the harshest winter the region has seen in twenty years In other words simplicity just isn t as simple as it is cracked up to be and quality of life Lucinda learns is much more complicated than she ever imagined